Moonglade
whenever there is light, there will also be shadow. but when there is darkness, will there always be light? ---- "Mommy!!" The dragonet wailed. "Mommy! I want a stoooooryyyy." She paused, before starting again. "Mom!! Story now please I can't sleep without it mommy!" The mother appeared, her slight smile turning into a roll of her eyes. "Alright honey, I'm right here." She sighed. "Stop yelling, you know how she is." Her eyes drifted away a bit, and focused on the dragonet, whose wings had suddenly drooped a little. She let out a slightly less audible sign, and sat down. "Darling, it's okay." She said, smiling. "Now… what story would you like to read?" The dragonet perked up, an immediate smile returning to her face. "Uhh…" She paused suddenly, frowning. "Umm… mommy can you talk about the Nightmare?" "Nightmare…" The dragoness blinked in response. "Dear… where did you get that name from?" Her face was furrowed, frowning. But the dragonet didn't pick up on the change in tone. She simply looked up, and nodded eagerly. "Yep!! My friends were talking about her being scary and roar and going all stabby on the dragonets that wandered away alone…" She paused, shuddering. "But that's not true right, mommy? Who would go around doing that and wouldn't the good guys catch her right away?" The mother sighed. "She's nothing more than a story, dear. But if you so insist on hearing about her -" "Yes!!! yes!" "- alright I get it." She lumbered away, returning with a weathered scroll. "Let me tell you the tale of the Nightmare." ---- :appearance The mother settled back, pulling the blanket tight around the dragonet and herself. She opened the scroll, turning to the first picture. "This." she said, her voice suddenly quiet. "Is the Nightmare." The dragonet leaned forward, letting out a small gasp. Her childhood fairytales had been filled with simplistic pictures but this seemed… almost real. It was simply a picture of a lithe black - no wait, blue - dragoness. And the glow… The dragonet leaned in even closer, tugging the paper away from her mother's grasp. Spirals, runic patterns in an electrifying blue, painted down her sides, little spheres of light drifting away. "She's beautiful…" The dragonet finally managed, looking over the form once more. Then her eyes snagged onto the eyes staring back from the paper. A white emptiness, glowing with that same blue. A shudder clacked her spines together… and the head tilted. The dragonet screeched, dropping the paper and scrambling back. The mother tilted her head, and a face of concern appeared in the dragonet's view. "Honey… are you okay?" She gathered up the dragonet in her wings, hugging the child close. "It…" The dragonet pointed at the page shakily. "It… she, Nightmare… she moved…" The mother picked up the scroll, staring intently before shaking her head. "I… I don't think." She looked down. "It's a gorgeous and realistic drawing, but that doesn't make it real. You just saw an illusion. Your eyes tricking you. It's okay, dear." The dragonet nodded, still shaky. She stared at the page as well, but nothing moved. It was just a still frame of the Nightmare. She looked more… SeaWing. Small droplets dripping from her wings, almost like honey sluggishly moving down. The dragonet turned her head towards the face again, but now the gaze was flat, simply ink on paper. "Y..yeah." She managed. "Would you like to sleep now then, dear?" The mother started. "It's getting late and -" "No!! Nope no nope nah uh I don't know any more words that mean no…" She paused, looking up at her mother hopefully. "Please? Just a little story about her. A small one." She opened towards the words, then realized she hadn't learned how to read yet. "Pleeease?" A nod, and the mother sighed again. She really did make that disappointed noise a lot. "...Alright." ---- :personality The Nightmare... Mother started, her voice a soft sound like a ghost. The dragoness that prowls the dark. The monster, that all children fear... She travels the night, searching for those who are alone, and scared, and lost... and comes for them. Some say she has no mercy, that she is nothing more than a mindless brute, out for blood. She has no motivation, and why would she need it? She is a monster... nothing but a monster. This story is wrong. The truth is that she is a dragon, and still a dragon. Odd, and most certainly enchanted to become something she is not, but a dragon, still, at heart. And she is not mindless and evil, but pitying and merciful. Nature herself maybe kind and beautiful, but she is never fair. Nature kills, slowly, through disease and starvation, the supple fruits filled with poison and the bright sunlight scorching death. Nature is not fair, and will kill, slowly. And all the Nightmare does is protect the dragonets from Nature's cruel grasp. The Nightmare knows the pains of dying, and so the dragonets vanish, but are killed quickly. They feel no pain, and horror and pain only comes from the fact that they are completely alone... The Nightmare is not someone to fear. The Nightmare protects. And this is the story of how she became this way. "Wait- so that all wasn't the actual story?" The dragonet was staring with scrunched up brows at the story, frowning as she tried to connect the odd little squiggles on the scroll to the words her mother was saying. "And this scary stabby dragon thing isn't really scary or stabby but actually." She frowned. "The Nightmare kills us to protect us from death?" The mother looked down, a slight frown creasing her face as well. "Well... from the fear. Of abandonment and being alone." She stared at the page. "I don't think... this isn't the story I've heard." "So you also never read this?" The dragonet squawked. "You have a scroll that you've never read me and didn't read yourself and now the Nightmare is not an evil stabby dragon? I thought she was just the pretty evil stabby dragon that made you disappear. If she isn't, what is she? Can you read more mommy? Please?" The mother frowned and stood, then shook her head. "Hm... honey, I think that's enough for tonight." "No!! Mommy.... Please! Just the story, just please... let me sleep late once!" But the wails were futile, because her mother blew out the candle, and took the scroll as she left the cave. "Please..." The dragonet started again, ready to launch into a tantrum. "It's late. I can tell you tomorrow." The mother looked back. "The story won't change in that time. Just go to sleep, you know how busy you are tomorrow." And she was gone. "Mommy..." The dragonet whined, quieter. "I just want to know who the Nightmare is." But she closed her eyes, and quickly fell asleep, her whirling mind settling in for a nice little dream, of playing in the forest and throwing mud. Until she looked up, and spotted the glowing white eyes in the trees. Silence, and then a polite voice said, "Perhaps I could help answer that question?" *** This must be the record for most stupid decision made by a dragon that really shouldn't exist and maybe screwed up the universe. Or most stupid decision. In general. The dragonet was afraid, shivering and taking a step back. And Moonglade? Was wondering how many times she'd managed to screw up the universe. This was going to be… difficult. She hadn't had interaction in approximately… Oh right time doesn't even matter anymore. "Sorry if I scared you?" That came out wrong in a million different ways, but the dragonet shifted, and she seemed less scared and more… curious. Always loved the little ones like that. They had the potential to maybe be friends, and now she had to live with the regret of avoiding them. "You're not…" The dragonet was speaking, stuttered words that still contained interest. "You…" She was flailing around for the right word, and her limited vocabulary wasn't providing. "I'm not the scary evil stabby dragon your friends told you about?" Moonglade smiled a little, hoping that might soften the tension. She loved dragonets. They're just so… innocent. Young. Open to new ideas. "Yeah!" She yelped. "All my friends talk about how scary you are, and how you act super creepily nice and then you eat us and then -" "Wait, wait wait, back up." It seemed the myth grew… quite a bit while she wasn't paying attention. "I? Eat you?" "Yep!" She was so energetic, and a bit of mud splattered over. "You're stabby chomp and evil but then your eyes - your eyes are so cool - go all controlly and bam the lonely little dragonet is dead haha! Evil Nightmare strikes again! Don't wander away little naut - naugh… naugt? naty?" "Naughty?" "Yeah, nauty dragonets!" She paused. "Then mommy's scroll was like 'nonono actually the Nightmare is not evil but actually saves us from death by going all stabby on us?" She scrunched her face up. "Which doesn't make sense, but that's because it's not true!! You're nice, and funny, and don't yell at me when I make mistakes…" Moonglade help but smile at that. "Yes, the scrolls are wrong aren't they?" She nodded, enthusiastic. "They're so wrong! My friends - I should tell them about you! How you're actually funny and… funny, and nice and… not stabby?" Dragonets. Moonglade laughed a little too hard. It's been too long since she'd talked to someone. "Hmm… perhaps you don't tell them about me?" The dragonet tilted her head. "I do enjoy listening to the tall tales others make of me." It was more of… she didn't want the dragonet's friends turning against her, but putting that into words? "Dragonets are scared of me, and I don't want them to turn that fear towards you, you know?" The dragonet frowned, clearly confused, but nodded. "Hmm… yeah, ok." Moonglade nodded, and turned around to leave, already ready to immerse herself in daydreaming. "Wait, wait wait." The dragonet yelped. "Are you actually called the Nightmare?" A smile, and she turned back around. "Of course not. Moonglade. See you tomorrow night?" "Yep!" And the dream fizzled away. ---- :history Category:Characters Category:Work In Progress Category:Content (Cloud the IceWing) Category:Females Category:SeaWings Category:LGBT+ Category:Status (Legend)